Politically motivated violence: significantly more right -wing extremists

The number of politically motivated crimes has increased more than ever since the introduction of nationwide statistics in 2001. As the President of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Holger Münch, reported in the publication of the number of cases for 2024, more than 84,000 politically motivated crimes were committed in Germany – a negative record. The police recently assigned around every second of these acts to the right spectrum. Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) said that it is necessary to contain politically motivated crime is a common “security offensive of the federal and state governments”.

Compared to 2023, the number of police -known offenses increased by around 40 percent with a political motive. The Federal Criminal Police Office sees, among other things, elections and the Middle East conflict as the causes of the increase in politically motivated crimes. In addition to the European elections in June, there were 2024 state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg as well as the partial repetition of the Bundestag election in Berlin. In addition, the early Bundestag election threw its shadows ahead.

In 2024, the increase was the most powerful for the crimes that were presumably motivated on the right. According to the police statistics, their number rose to 42,788 offenses from 28,945 crimes from 28,945 crimes. “The greatest danger to democracy is based on right -wing extremism,” said the Federal Minister of the Interior when asked, repeating an assessment of his predecessor Nancy Faeser (SPD).

The best way to weaken the parties on the political edges was the solution to the problems that moved citizens, he answered a question of a possible prohibition procedure against the AfD. The debate about such a ban is “counterproductive”.

Also among the 4107 acts of violence with a political motive last year, the proportion of those who, according to the police, have a right background, is particularly high with around 36 percent. 975 acts of violence – just under 24 percent – accounted for the “foreign ideology” area. 762 acts of violence – almost 19 percent – the police expected the left spectrum.

If the circumstances of the crime or the perpetrator’s attitude provide clues that he acted due to prejudices – for example in terms of ethnic origin, religious affiliation or gender – the police speaks of so -called hate crime. In 19,481 cases, the police officers saw “xenophobia” as a motive.

In 6236 cases, a presumably anti -Semitic motive became a record of the police’s input statistics. In 2832 cases, of the 7328 politically motivated crimes that the police have assigned to the sub -topics “Israel” and “Palestine”, she saw an anti -Semitic motivation. A large part of the 793 politically motivated violent violations, which were known in the context of the Middle East conflict, were related to demonstrations and protest. This can be recognized by the type of offense – including 111 cases of the breach of the peace and 385 resistance offenses.

“The increasing anti -Semitism worries us,” said Dobrindt. His answer to this is: “More skills for the police and more consequences for the criminals”. Among other things, he spoke out for more video surveillance at crime, criminal enforcement and easier statements in the event of a conviction for an anti -Semitic crime.

Of the 6236 anti -Semitic crimes last year, according to statistics, 3016 acts were presumably right -wing perpetrators. The fact that the number of anti -Semitic offenses motivated on the right remained practically unchanged compared to the previous year has to do with the fact that since the beginning of 2024 anti -Semitic acts with an unclear motif have no longer been automatically added to the right spectrum, but are counted under “Other assignment”.

The number of crimes motivated on the left increased by around 28 percent to 9971 offenses last year. The acts of violence with the left background, on the other hand, decreased by almost 17 percent to 762 acts. Münch also sees a result of investigative and search success in recent years.

The federal chairman of the police union (GdP), Jochen Kopelke, said: “We have to fight extremism better in Germany. The police alone cannot do that.” Measures are particularly necessary to stop the increase in politically motivated violence and the “radicalization via the smartphone”.

On the one hand, the AfD, the hatred of migrants, Jews and dissenters, is responsible for the increase in right violence, said the left -wing party Die Linke, Jan van Aken. On the other hand, the middle of the middle also made a contribution because they “take over parts of their positions for fear of the AfD”.

The German Richterbund (DRB) warned against relying only changes in the law when combating violence, agitation and hate crime. “Sharper criminal laws alone will not cause little as long as the blatant personal recesses slow down effective law enforcement,” said DRB federal manager, Sven Rebehn. The investigative authorities are currently taking almost a million indispensable cases in front of them, more than 2,000 prosecutors and criminal judges were missing nationwide.